Well there's when I first started watching anime and when I GOT INTO anime and knew what anime really was. Before I knew what it was I watched some anime but didn't realize it was different then normal American cartoons. I've been watching anime since I was 10-12 with shows like Voltron, Starblazers, and Robotech.

I was around 14 or 15 I think (hard to remember now after all the years) when I realized what it really was. A friend of mine, same name actually, was into anime and "opened my eyes" so to speak about it. Through that I broadened my horizons and got into manga as well. Anyone who knows me or has seen my posts over the years here knows I am a die hard Oh My Goddess fan. One big reason is the first real manga I bought and got into was OMG. Up to it I had mostly stuck with Science Fiction shows and comics. OMG was my first real branching out and it got me hooked. So I always have a special spot for OMG as it really was one of the key titles (along with others such as Project A-Ko, Akira, Vampire Hunter D, Patlabor, and Wings of Honneamise) that really cemented anime as a real hobby for me. It helped take me from being a simple fan to being a real anime junkie.

Went to my first convention in 2003 which was Otakon. First convention experience and I picked the second largest one to go to. I was shell shocked to say the least. I hardly had been able to have a conversation with anyone about anime except that friend and then I jumped right into Otakon. That was like learning how to run a triathlon before learning how to crawl lol.

I used to watch Dragonball Z as a kid, but after that there is a long gap in my experience with anime. I started getting into it again when I was 17, back in 2006-07 when Bionix on YTV was airing the original Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka Seven, Bleach, and Gundam Seed (may have been Destiny, my minds a bit foggy as I didn't watch that one as much as the 3 others). Then I found some FMA and Speed Grapher dvds at Walmart for cheap, and well....here we are .

Well there's when I first started watching anime and when I GOT INTO anime and knew what anime really was. Before I knew what it was I watched some anime but didn't realize it was different then normal American cartoons. I've been watching anime since I was 10-12 with shows like Voltron, Starblazers, and Robotech.

I was around 14 or 15 I think (hard to remember now after all the years) when I realized what it really was. .

That's pretty much exactly what I would have said, although my shows are just a little different. I started with Starblazers and Battle of the Planets (you know, the Americanized Gatchaman). But what really made me a fan of anime was Akira. Like you, some of my favorites are Vampire Hunter D and Patlabor. But two events hooked me for good and ever, and those were watching Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop. Now I'm hooked forever. I couldn't live without watching something on Crunchyroll and Funimation every couple of days.

Well there's when I first started watching anime and when I GOT INTO anime and knew what anime really was. Before I knew what it was I watched some anime but didn't realize it was different then normal American cartoons. I've been watching anime since I was 10-12 with shows like Voltron, Starblazers, and Robotech.

This is true for a lot of us!

My first anime ever came in the form of a VHS tape with My Neighbor Totoro in it at my 5th birthday, but I wasn't a fan.

Then, I watched Dragon Ball/Z daily, but I wasn't a fan either (Could either watch that one or, say, Rugrats as it was the same thing to me, really).

Skip like 10 years, it's 2007. Got to see Evangelion by my own, and it was instant-love. I became a fan. suddenly, I couldn't get enough of that addictive thought-provoking japanese stuff.

So yep, sometimes it takes a loooong time from the first exposition of a medium to a real identification of it as something unique and worth following.

I was in middle school when I first got into anime. It was a combo of watching the Vampire Hunter D movie I rented from the video store and the late 90's toonami block. It was a magical time for a 90's kid like me.

I was about 36-37 when I first got into anime (I watched a couple of shows as a child but I'm sure I had no idea they were Japanese). I was unable to collect much at that time (which is just as well because I'd be stuck with a bunch of old VHS tapes); I was 48 when I started seriously collecting anime on DVD.

I chose 10-25. I'm now 59, so that means I started watching anime back in the late 1960s. Speed Racer, Astor Boy, Marine Boy, Gigantor and 8th Man were my first anime loves. I didn't get back into anime in a serious way until 2005, though.

While I DID start watching anime when I was like 5 or 6, (watching stuff like Digimon, Pokemon, Sailor Moon etc) I didn't really get into anime until I was like 12 or 13.

Even then, I didn't watch that much anime during that period, other than watching the first four seasons of DBZ. It wasn't until last year that I started to get really, hardcore into anime, to the point where I was watching a lot of material.

I first started enjoying anime when I watched Saber Rider and Astro Boy. Of course, I didn't know it was anime at the time, as I was only eight at the time.

I was around 16 when I first got into anime as a hobby. My brother was the one who pulled me into it, I guess. I started watching Ninja Scroll and Macross Plus, which lead me to check out other stuff. Fortunately, the local comic shop was renting anime VHS tapes at the time, as actual purchases would have been expensive.

I can't believe I've been watching anime for such a long time. I also find it hard to believe I've sunk so much time and money into the hobby.

The 10-25 range for me. Specifically, I saw some things when I was younger on the Sci-Fi Channel watched Robotech but I didn't really get into anime as a medium until middle school when I managed to catch a marathon DBZ on Cartoon Network and got hooked. After that I decided to keep my eye out for other such Japanese animated show and try them out. I think I was either 12 or 13, and now I'll be 30 in December.

Last edited by Kruszer on Thu Nov 01, 2012 2:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

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